Explore the vast range of titles available.

Provides an overview of the World Bank's portfolio in the area of Education Management Information Systems (EMISs) over the course of 17 years, from 1998 to 2014. It seeks to identify overall trends and characteristics of World Bank support in this area, with the intent of informing future project preparation and analytical work. The portfolio review revealed that although several good practices were evident, operational performance of EMIS activities fell short of expectations, with widespread deficiencies that ranged from unclear definitions and understanding of the EMIS to ineffective implementation and utilization. Examples of successful activities include the development of an EMIS to manage teachers and provide access to education (for example, Afghanistan); utilization of an EMIS as a management tool (for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina); creation of an online EMIS to improve access to education data (for example, Honduras); use of an EMIS to strengthen teaching and learning (for example, Guatemala and Lithuania); and use of an EMIS as a management tool for schools (for example, Malaysia). These success stories highlight how a well-implemented EMIS can improve the performance of an education system. The challenges that have been identified as contributing to the shortcomings are related to the following: Misalignment of activities and unrealistic EMIS goals; Institutionalization of the EMIS; Sustainability challenges resulting from inconsistent leadership; Missed integration opportunities; Private players in education; EMIS at the local level. Future projects could benefit from the SABER (Systems Approach for Better Education Results)-EMIS Assessment Framework. The SABER-EMIS Framework focuses on the need for a strong enabling environment, system soundness, quality data, and effective utilization as the key factors essential for the successful implementation of an EMIS. Initial needs assessment of a country's EMIS can play a critical role in benchmarking countries and provide a valuable foundation for the design of new projects.

Process data refer to data recorded in log files of computer-based items. These data, represented as timestamped action sequences, keep track of respondents’ response problem-solving behaviors. Process data analysis aims at enhancing educational assessment accuracy and serving other assessment purposes by utilizing the rich information contained in response processes. The R package ProcData presented in this article is designed to provide tools for inspecting, processing, and analyzing process data. We define an S3 class ‘proc’ for organizing process data and extend generic methods summary and print for ‘proc’. Feature extraction methods for process data are implemented in the package for compressing information in the irregular response processes into regular numeric vectors. ProcData also provides functions for making predictions from neural-network-based sequence models. In addition, a real dataset of response processes from the climate control item in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment is included in the package.

Career choices are shaped by students’ experiences, knowledge, and skill sets across time, reflecting not only disciplinary interests but also exposure to evolving fields such as data science (DSC). Despite a surge in interest and enrollment in data science degrees, the United States faces a growing demand for data literacy across multiple sectors. Online learning environments have become entry points for students’ initial engagement with DSC, offering accessibility and supporting workforce needs. Nevertheless, the interdisciplinary essence of DSC means that clear career paths remain ambiguous, especially for those applying DSC knowledge within various disciplines. While national data sources provide valuable overviews of degree distributions, more granular analysis at the course level is warranted to understand nuanced student trajectories. Project-based online learning, though proven valuable in in-person settings, remains underexplored in online DSC education. This study employs curriculum analytics and Sankey diagram visualizations to investigate course enrollment patterns and career trajectories among students after enrolling in an introductory online project-based DSC course. We built a longitudinal dataset by following 35 students between Fall 2022 and Spring 2024, tracking their subsequent course enrollments over time. Demographic and academic data were sourced from institutional enrollment records, allowing subgroup analysis based on major, gender, race, first-generation status, and achievement. Our exploratory analysis reveals patterns indicating that continued DSC course enrollment appears prevalent among nonwhite, male, STEM-major, and academically proficient students, whereas first-generation students exhibit no persistence. We illustrate how Sankey diagrams, though not establishing causality, provide actionable insights for program and curriculum development in DSC education.

This paper presents an overview of results for the geostatistical analysis of collocated multivariate data sets, whose variables form a composition, where the components represent the relative importance of the parts forming a whole. Such data sets occur most often in mining, hydrogeochemistry and soil science, but the results gathered here are relevant for any regionalised compositional data set. The paper covers the basic definitions, the analysis of the spatial codependence between components, mapping methods of cokriging and cosimulation honoring compositional constraints, the role of pre- and post-transformations such as log-ratios or multivariate normal score transforms, and block-support upscaling. The main result is that multivariate geostatistical techniques can and should be performed on log-ratio scores, in which case the system data-variograms-cokriging/cosimulation is intrinsically consistent, delivering the same results regardless of which log-ratio transformation was used to represent them. Proofs of all statements are included in an appendix.

The importance of self-regulation as an essential element for lifelong learning calls for the design of learning processes that promote it. In this context, peer assessment, characterised by promoting metacognitive reflection and guiding students in modifying their learning strategies during the process, is considered a key and effective element for its development. This research studies the effects of implementing peer feedback strategies on the development of the competence of learning to learn. The aim is to improve self-regulation in Spanish higher education students, specifically Master’s students in an online learning environment at an open university. The main objective of this contribution is to determine if the active involvement of students (111) in peer assessment (in the role of assessor or assessed) is confirmed as an effective self-regulation strategy. To do this, a self-regulation questionnaire was administered at the beginning and end of the experience, as well as a satisfaction questionnaire regarding the peer assessment experience. The results highlight that through the implemented peer feedback strategies, students specifically improved their capacity to deeply analyse tasks and clearly visualise objectives, which are elements related to the initial planning phase of self-regulation. The conclusions point to the need for students to take responsibility for self-regulation, and the opportunity that technology can provide in supporting student self-regulation, motivation, and participation in assessment in online learning environments.

BackgroundTeaching online is a different experience from that of teaching in a face-to-face setting. Knowledge and skills developed for teaching face-to-face classes are not adequate preparation for teaching online. It is even more challenging to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses completely online because these courses usually require more hands-on activities and live demonstrations. Although the demand for online STEM courses has never been higher, little has been done to develop effective instructional and online course design strategies for teaching STEM courses online. This paper reports the effectiveness of the instructional strategies adopted and the online course design features in a fully online statistics course from the students’ perspectives. The online statistics course was an introductory, quantitative research course that covered common statistical concepts and focused on the application of educational research concepts for graduate students in educational technology. In terms of the statistics concepts covered, the course was similar to an introductory statistics class for students majoring in science, technology, math and engineering (STEM). The participants were mostly K-20 (meaning from kindergarten to college) instructors who had knowledge of instructional strategies.ResultsData collected from participants’ reflections and course evaluations revealed that a range of instructional strategies and course design features were effective and helped students learn statistics in an online environment. Specifically, case studies, video demonstrations, instructor’s notes, mini projects, and an online discussion forum were most effective. For online course design features, consistent structure, various resources and learning activities, and the application focused course content were found to be effective.ConclusionsThe implications of this study include effective instructional strategies and online course design for application-oriented STEM courses such as physics and engineering. The study results can be used to guide online teaching and learning as well as online course design for instructors, course designers, and students in STEM fields.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a nutritional intervention involving a problem-raising approach and the use of pictorial representations on the promotion of knowledge and practices of healthy eating among adolescents. This randomized study included 461 adolescents from public schools in Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil (intervention group: 273 students from four schools; control group: 188 students from three schools). Mean age was 14.8±1.0, and 52.9% were boys. The intervention consisted of three meetings with interactive activities about principles of healthy eating, food classification, importance of reading labels and analyzing food advertising critically, and representations of healthy and unhealthy meals and their sugar, salt, and fat content. Pictorial materials consisted of food drawings, food models, and a food packaging model. Controls were not exposed to any activity. Dietary knowledge, consumption, and behaviors were the variables of interest. The intervention group showed a higher mean score of correct answers to questions about dietary knowledge than the control group (p = 0.0006), with higher odds of correctly answering questions about in natura (OR: 3.7; 95% CI: 1.9-6.6), minimally processed (OR: 3.6; 95% CI: 1.9-6.4), processed (OR: 2.2; 95% CI: 1.1-4.3), and ultra-processed foods (OR: 3.5; 95% CI: 1.8-6.6) and composition of ultra-processed foods (OR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.3-4.4). Participants in the intervention group were also 2.5 times more likely to correctly answer questions about the importance of the dietary environment (95% CI: 1.1-5.5) and caution with food advertising (95% CI: 1.2-5.3) than controls. Increased weekly consumption of vegetables (p = 0.0077; OR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.26-4.51) and reduced consumption of soft drinks (p = 0.0212; OR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.15-0.86) were observed in the intervention group compared to the control group. The proposed intervention increased adolescents' knowledge and improved some of their dietary habits. Educational activities using a problem-raising approach and pictorial representations of food appear to be effective in promoting healthy eating practices among adolescents.

Objective Vocational rehabilitation measures support youth and young adults with disabilities to obtain vocational training and to enter the labor market. In Germany, a growing number of young people with psychological disabilities in vocational rehabilitation can be observed. The study at hand focuses on this group and examines their (un-)unemployment biographies before vocational rehabilitation, their access to vocational rehabilitation and identifies their individual challenges within the process of vocational rehabilitation. Methods Using a multi-methods approach, we analyze representative administrative data of the German Federal Employment Agency as well as biographical interviews conducted with young rehabilitants. We compare the population of young rehabilitants with psychological disorders to those with other disabilities in terms of vocational rehabilitation and initial labor market entry in order to get a representative picture about their school to work transitions. Since rehabilitants with psychological disabilities tend to be older than the remaining population, analyses are stratified by age groups. In addition, qualitative in-depth interviews provide an additional and deeper understanding of specific employment barriers youth with psychological disorders have to overcome. Furthermore, the individual perspective gives insight on how the crucial transition from school to work is perceived by the population under study. Results The pathway into vocational rehabilitation of youth with psychological disorders is often characterized by obstacles in their transition from school to work. During rehabilitation, it appears essential to provide psychological stabilization along with vocational training. Although their average level of education is higher than those of other rehabilitants, labor market transition after (often company-external) vocational training challenges many young people with psychological disabilities, leaving many of them with comparatively poor labor market prospects. Conclusions Young persons with psychological disabilities, who come from regular schools or dropped out from regular school or university, seem to find their way to vocational rehabilitation more indirectly. Furthermore, vocational rehabilitation itself is often prolonged for those with psychological disabilities possibly due to a corresponding stabilization process. However, vocational rehabilitation can be a core element within the stabilization process of a psychological disease.

Hippocampal shrinkage is commonly reported in schizophrenia, but its role in the illness is still poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear how clinical and psychosocial variables relate to hippocampal volumes. To investigate neuroanatomic differences in the hippocampus using three-dimensional (3D) computational image analysis. We used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and surface-based modelling to map the 3D profile of hippocampal differences in adults with schizophrenia (n = 67) and a healthy control group (n = 72). Manual tracings were used to create 3D parametric mesh models of the hippocampus. Regression models were used to relate diagnostic measures to maps of radial distance, and colour-coded maps were generated to show the profile of associations. There was no detectable difference between the schizophrenia and control groups in hippocampal radial distance. In the schizophrenia group, however, bilateral shape deflation was associated with greater illness severity (length of illness, positive and negative symptoms) and with poorer social functioning (educational level, quality of life and health status), which survived Bonferroni correction. Illness severity and poor social functioning may be associated with hippocampal deflation in schizophrenia. As a structural sign of poor outcome, imaging measures might help to identify a subgroup of patients who may need specific treatment to resist hippocampal shrinkage, such as cognitive rehabilitation or physical exercise.